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Colorado College hockey set to get plenty of national exposure

By: JOE PAISLEY The Gazette

July 17, 2013Updated: July 17, 2013 at 3:19 pm

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Colorado College players celebrate with right wing William Rapuzzi, center, after he scored to put the Tigers ahead 1-0 against Clarkson University during the first period Friday, Oct. 12, 2012, at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Christian Murdock, The Gazette file)

The most Colorado College hockey regular-season games in recent memory will be broadcast nationally next season.

Four games will be shown on CBS Sports Network, which is available throughout North America.

"I cannot remember having more than three national games in a regular season," longtime CC sports information director Dave Moross said.

The total does not include the NCAA Tournament, which is shown nationally by ESPN networks.

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced the rest of the league's national TV schedule Wednesday morning after releasing the opening doubleheader slate last spring. The Oct. 18 league openers on Oct. 18 are: North Dakota at Miami followed by Minnesota-Duluth at CC.

Colorado College picked up a home game against St. Cloud State on March 7, 2014 and road games at North Dakota Jan. 10 and Denver on Feb. 21. All four are on Friday night.

Times are to be announced. The two home games are part of doubleheaders making an 8:07 p.m. start likely.

The most regular-season games for the Tigers on a national network recently were two each during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, all on CBS-SN.

Now, CC will look to add regional broadcasts to promote the program and reach alumni and fans.

Potential partners include Altitude, ROOT Sports and local stations The CW, KKTV, KOAA, KRDO, which have all broadcast games in the past five years, have expressed continued interest, associate athletic director Scott Lowenberg said.

Any Altitude openings will be determined after the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche schedules are announced.

"We're trying to put it all together," Lowenberg said. "Altitude is definitely interested but they have so many dates with the Avs and Nuggets. It is difficult. Tuesday's game against Air Force (Nov. 19) is a possibility. We have been talking to ROOT for a while now about the other three Denver games."

The other North Dakota games are Fox College Sports possibilities while the two Wisconsin road games Dec. 13-14 are a candidate for the Big Ten Network or Fox Sports Wisconsin, Lowenberg said.

Eleven regular-season games were broadcast by regional networks, including Fox Sports North or by local TV stations last season. There were 12 shown in 2010-11 and 2008-09.

The four CBS games involving the Tigers are part of an 18-game schedule which includes 15 regular-season contests and the postseason tournament semifinals and championship game in Minneapolis' Target Center March 21-22. All but two of the regular-season games are league matchups.

North Dakota has six regular-season games on the schedule followed by Miami with five. CC, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan have four each while Denver and Minnesota-Duluth have two. Nebraska-Omaha has one.